Stir with ice and strain in to a cocktail glass. Garnish with a lemon zest twist.

Created as a “summertime Manhattan” by Sam Ross, Milk and Honey bartender of Penicillin fame, the Cobble Hill is one of the few Brooklyn variations, along with the Bensonhurst, that uses the original drinks dry vermouth. Here the Amer Picon and Maraschino is replaced by Amaro Montenegro, an amaro distilled in Bologna, Italy from a recipe of over 40 herbs that has a strong vanilla flavour along with notes of coriander and tangerine, and long mildly bitter finish full of citrus.

This combined with the fresh cucumber notes results in an unusual but tasty combination of flavours, with the subtle cucumber working surprisingly well with the rye, adding a delicious hint of brightness to the drink. I hadn’t tried Amaro Montenegro prior to this drink but it’s a pleasantly mild amaro that is put to great use in this drink.

Stir with ice and strain in to a cocktail glass. Add a twist of lemon zest twist, rim and discard.

Joaquin Simo of Death & Company created the Carroll Gardens in 2008, naming the drink after his home neighborhood. Utilising Nardini Amaro, an unusual liqueur with bitter orange, peppermint and licorice flavours, the result is a an aromatic cocktail with the deep Punt e Mes flavours playing nicely with the amaro to complement the rye perfectly. The splash of maraschino livens things up a little, but this remains a serious, imposing cocktail.

This final variation was created by another Death & Co. bartender, Phil Ward. Coming almost full circle the Bushwick brings back Amer Picon and Maraschino liqueur and simply puts sweet vermouth in place of the dry vermouth of the original Brooklyn. Real Amer Picon is fairly rare and currently only available in a weaker reformulation so I usually reach for the Amer Boudreau when making drinks that call for it. Unusually in the Bushwick I actually think the original works better – if you’re using a homemade version you may want to toy with the ratios a little.

Shucks! I have a variation I’ve been calling the bushwick, but I’m guessing that Phil had his first. Sill like mine — 2 oz rye, 3/4 oz nonino amaro, a few dashes angostura, strain into a cocktail glass an float with san pelligrino aranciata.

I like Phil’s subtle variation. I just prefer a rosso vermouth with rye.

Also, yes, amaro montenegro is good stuff. It’s very different from your main line amari. It’s got a very syrupy front, which finishes with a lot of fennel and bark.

[...] variations spawned in recent years by the Red Hook, a number of which Jay at Oh Gosh! has recently documented. I’ve often noticed that drinks made with St. Germain can end up with a grapefruit-y taste [...]